Portugal Trip: The Food

I have several posts coming this week about my recent Vinho Verde trip.  To start, the food. It was excellent, both at restaurants and at the meals served to us at wineries. Although we had beef one night (in Spain), the focus was very much on seafood and pork, which made me very happy. A few points below and then some images:

• We had salt cod at almost every meal. Many fritters, but also a memorable casserole I sadly did not photograph featuring salt cod, turnip greens, black-eyed peas and bread crumbs. I'll be googling for a recipe.

• Custard: not just the expected individual egg tarts, but also flavored with orange and in cakes.

• Squid and octopus, oh my! Very much highlights at several meals and the star of my favorite meal of the trip.

• Excellent bread, but also many meals served with both excellent rice and roasted potatoes.

• Oranges were growing almost everywhere. Orange juice, along with large quantities of tea, accompanied my breakfast daily.

• Multiple meals were roasted over wood. Made me want to try it in my fireplace at home.

• Ham so good that I wished I could have brought some back to San Francisco with me.  

 

Not just for show: Pork, rice and potatoes roasting.

Salt cod fritters with rosé and cured pork in the background.

At  Dop in Porto. A silver dollar sized burger.

Scallop, mushroom and egg. Plus a perfectly seasoned salad. Also at Dop. 

Ham at the market in Ponte de Lima

Salt cod, also at the market.

Beans at the market.

My favorite meal of the trip: Octopus and potatoes roasted over a wood fire with lots of olive oil and garlic.

Bakery window.

Bread with the symbol of Guimarães, the 2012 European Capital of Culture

 

Oranges were everywhere.